Wimbledon draws to a close today, the culmination of two weeks of tennis, grunting, strawberries and cream. Grunting comes with the territory, but the strawberries are merely a happy coincidence, the British season traditionally peaking at the same time as the grass-court championships. When the last ball has been struck, the crowds will have munched their way through nearly 30 tons of the things.
This year has seen something of a bumper crop, at least in the southeast, where the season started early and the abundant spring sunshine produced sweeter than usual berries. Scottish growers, sadly, haven’t fared so well. Hurricane-like winds in May cut a destructive swathe through both their polytunnels and their plants.
I recently spent a day pottering around Marion Regan’s strawberry farm in Kent. A fourth-generation fruit farmer, Regan supplies berries for Wimbledon as well as many of the big supermarkets, growing everything from the ubiquitous ‘Elsanta’ (an undistinguished berry, though not always deserving of its damning press) to what I think is the best British strawberry now around, ‘Driscoll’s Jubilee’: a deep-red, perfect heart shape that’s a darling of the supermarket premium ranges, with a consistently sweet flavour and perfume. If you can’t find it, ‘Sweet Eve’ and ‘English Rose’ are two other superior varieties, with a good balance of sweetness, scent and acidity. ‘Jubilee’ and ‘Sweet Eve’ bear fruit for several months, extending the native season well into October.
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When it comes to raspberries, ‘Tulameen’, ‘Maravilla’ and the new variety ‘Ambrosia’ are among the names to look out for. The availability of other less mainstream berries is also improving. M&S is selling loganberries for the first time this summer, and there has been a proliferation of “new” fruit with names such as strasberries and pineberries (both at Waitrose).
Let me, though, put in a plea for two old-timers: the gooseberry and the cherry. Green gooseberries — with us for another couple of weeks if we’re lucky — are one of the old-fashioned flavours of a British summer: tart and cleansingly fresh like no other berry. Sadly, they are in danger of being swept away by our modern taste for sweetness. As for cherries, I saw my first roadside stall of the year on my jaunt to Kent. They were earlier than usual, like everything else. If you’re buying cherries over the next month or so, make sure they’re British. The supermarkets have done much to support English cherry orchards in recent years. It’s important that we do the same.
One last thought: let the fruit come to room temperature before you eat, particularly if you’re just going to douse it with cream. It will be immeasurably better than if it has been plucked straight from the fridge. And give berries a go in savoury recipes as well as sweet. I’ve given you a couple of ideas here to get you started.
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Strawberry gazpacho
Serves 6-8
Trust me, this is delicious. It’s inspired by something I had at the Feria in Jerez in May, sipping chilled Tio Pepe as women drifted past in ruffled flamenco dresses. Total bliss. The strawberries add an intriguing sweetness.
750g ripe, flavourful tomatoes, chopped
300g ripe strawberries, hulled, plus 2-3 extra for cubing
½ small red pepper, deseeded, deribbed and finely chopped
½ medium red onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tsp caster sugar
1½ tbsp sherry vinegar
Sea-salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper
100ml extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for dribbling
Put the tomatoes, 300g strawberries, red pepper, onion, garlic, sugar and vinegar in a blender. Add 100ml extra-virgin olive oil, 1 tsp of sea-salt flakes (or less if using fine salt), plus a few grinds of pepper. Whizz to a thin purée, then add 4 tbsp cold water and whizz again. If your blender is small, you’ll need to do this in two batches.
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Push the mixture through a sieve with the back of a ladle to remove the pips and skin, remembering to scrape any purée from the underside of the sieve. Put in the fridge to chill for a few hours.
Just before you want to eat, cut a couple of extra strawberries into tiny cubes. Remove the gazpacho from the fridge and check the seasoning, adding salt and pepper if necessary, plus a couple of pinches more sugar and/or another splash of vinegar if you feel it needs it. You can also add a tbsp more water if it needs thinning. The soup may have separated slightly, so stir everything together well or give it another spin in the blender. Pour into small tumblers, scatter a few cubed strawberries on top and add a few dots of extra-virgin oil and a grind of black pepper to serve.
Sweet strawberry soup
This one’s for pudding. Hull and thinly slice 500g strawberries. Put them in a bowl with 50g caster sugar, a couple of squeezes of lemon juice, a few small, torn mint leaves and 150ml cold prosecco or other sparkling wine. Chill in the fridge for a couple of hours, then divide between six tumblers and top up with 150ml more sparkling wine. Top with a scoop of lemon or elderflower sorbet.
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Gooseberry frozen yoghurt with elderflower and lime
Serves 6
Pale but interesting and enlivened at the end with a shot of green lime zest. You can use bought elderflower cordial, or home-made if you have it.
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500g green gooseberries
150g caster sugar
4 tbsp undiluted elderflower cordial
500g full-fat Greek yoghurt
Zest of 1 lime
Put the gooseberries in a small saucepan with the sugar and 3 tbsp water. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, then cook gently for a few minutes until all the fruit has popped and softened. Whizz to a purée with a blender, then push through a sieve with a ladle to get rid of the pips. Stir in the elderflower cordial and leave to cool. When it’s cool, fold the fruit purée into the yoghurt. Either churn in an ice-cream machine, or put in a shallow container in the freezer for a few hours, until the mixture is solid, then break into blocks and blitz in a food processor until totally smooth. Return to the freezer for an hour or so. Eat while still just soft. If the mixture freezes hard, let it defrost in the fridge for 20 minutes or so, until it is soft enough to scoop.
Serve in small tumblerish glasses with a little finely grated lime zest over the top of each one.
Raspberry and goat's cheese salad
Serves 4 as a first course
A savoury take on raspberries and cream that’s fragrant, fresh and peppery.
200g raspberries
1 tsp white-wine vinegar
2 tsp sugar
3 tbsp groundnut or other light vegetable oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 handfuls each of rocket and watercress
A handful of basil leaves, torn if large
150g soft white rindless goat’s cheese
A splash of extra-virgin olive oil
Put a third of the raspberries in a small bowl with the vinegar and sugar and whisk together until the fruit has turned to a purée. Season and stir in the vegetable oil to make a loose dressing.
Arrange the leaves, remaining raspberries and basil on four plates, then add blobs of the goat’s cheese to each one. Splash the dressing over the top, along with a small glug of extra-virgin oil and a grind of black pepper.
Cherry and port jelly
Serves 6
The dark fruit and booze make for an intriguing deep-purple jelly. This is one for the grown-ups.
500g dark cherries, pitted
100g caster sugar
A small sprig of mint
6 sheets of leaf gelatine
250ml ruby port
Juice of 1 lemon
Double or single cream
Put the cherries in a small saucepan with the sugar and mint and 350ml water. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 5 minutes or until the cherries have softened. Remove the mint.
Meanwhile, soak the gelatine in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes, until soft. Squeeze out the water with your hands, and add the gelatine to the warm cherries and liquid. Stir well until the gelatine has completely dissolved, then add the port and lemon. Pour into glasses — I rather like the old-fashioned poise of a champagne coupe — and chill overnight to set.Pour a layer of thin cream over the top — or a blob of lightly whipped double cream — before serving.